How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?

Before he breaks her heart…
(2 June 2006 @ Dubrovnik, Croatia)




Never too competent or confident a writer, at one point in my student life I committed the worst sin of all—plagiarism. Conveniently borrowing lines from the lyrics of my favourite song, I reinvented it as a poem with my own twists and submitted the work to my English Literature teacher, who read out line after line in front of the class and a blushing me and my pounding heart.
On second thought, it wasn’t as much plagiarism as a metaphor that got stuck in my brain, screaming and pleading to be channelled into a literary piece to which I could claim authorship.

‘I think my heart must be made of clay,
‘cos everyone says it will be broken some day…’

What did a tender 17-year-old know about a human heart and its vulnerability? More than enough, apparently, and prophetically.

‘Years later, picking up the pieces of her life and heart, she sailed on, braving the daunting winds while navigating the arduous course in life’s journey, just to prove that when a heart is broken one too many times, it’s beyond repair and hence there’s no need for it to be mended.’

Which reminds me of a scene in How to Make an American Quilt. But that’s another story, for another time.

Life's Miracle

Life is truly a miracle: one day you’re in London and the next day you’re holding your precious newborn niece in your arms.
Praise the Lord for the greatest gift of all—life.

If only the pictures can do her gorgeous face some justice. She's barely one day old!